Underbelly: Brother of slain 'Mr Big' arrested at airport

THE brother of the slain "Mr Big" of Sydney's underbelly was last night dramatically arrested at the airport over a gangland shooting last April.

Mahmoud "Brownie" Ahmad left for Lebanon days after the shooting of Safwan Charbaji outside his brother's Condell Park smash repair business in April.

Ahmad - whose brother and gang kingpin Wally Ahmad was brazenly gunned down at a Bankstown shopping centre weeks after the Charbaji shooting - was arrested last night as he stepped off a flight from Lebanon via Qatar.

Police had issued an arrest warrant for murder following the Charbaji shooting, which was the start of a series of gangland executions that have rocked Sydney.

The 34-year-old was escorted by detectives out of the airport to Mascot Police Station, where he was charged with murder.

He will front court today.

Safwan Charbaji (left) was shot dead outside a smash repair business at Condell Park. His death sparked a gangland war.
Walid “Wally” Ahmad (right) was gunned down at Centro Bankstown in what police believe was retaliation for the murder of CharbajiNews Corp Australia

The arrest comes more than one week after Ahmad crime family enforcer Kemel Barakat was gunned down in his bed at Mortlake.

"A man wanted for murder has been arrested at Sydney Airport after returning from overseas," a police statement said last night.

"The warrant relates to the murder of a 32-year-old man at Condell Park on Saturday April 9, 2016, which is being investigated by the Homicide Squad under Strike Force Admiralty."

It is understood police will claim Wally Ahmad was murdered in retaliation for the killing of Charbaji.

The 32-year-old died after he was shot in the chest and Abdullah El Masri, 35, was also shot but not killed outside Ahmad's smash repairs business in Condell Park on April 9

Charbaji is believed to have been shot during an argument over $100,000 that ignited the warring Ahmad and Elmir families.

Charbaji, his father-in-law Fawaz Elmir and two others had gone to Ahmad's smash repair business to broker a solution to the dispute.

But when they arrived a shootout involving up to five guns broke out and Charbaji was shot dead. El Masri, an ­associate of the Ahmad family, was shot in the jaw during the crossfire.

In October, known hitman Hamad Asaad, who had bragged to underworld figures that he had killed Wally Ahmad, was shot in front of his family at Georges Hall.

Asaad was also implicated in a failed assassination attempt on Mafioso kingpin Pasquale Barbaro in Leichhardt in 2015.

A second attempt to kill Barbaro, in Earlwood, succeeded in November. Several members of the Rebels bikie gang have been charged over that killing.

Shortly after Barbaro's death, police announced a dedicated strike force to investigate eight gangland and bikie-related murders - including that of Charbaji.